England have selected three uncapped players for next week’s first Test against Sri Lanka and given recalls to Matt Prior and Liam Plunkett, omitting Ben Stokes and sending Jos Buttler, who had impressed recently for the one-day side, back to Lancashire.

Sam Robson, Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan all seem certain to make their Test debuts at Lord’s in a team that will show six changes from the XI who finally succumbed to a 5-0 Ashes whitewash in Sydney in January. Plunkett, who won the last of his nine Test caps in 2007 but has found a new lease of life since leaving Durham for Yorkshire, would seem to be in a battle with Chris Woakes to fill the fourth seam-bowling position that had been expected to go to Stokes, who was a rare bright spot in the winter but has only recently returned from a hand injury.

Prior has played even less recent cricket as a result of a troublesome achilles but he will definitely return as wicketkeeper, as “part of the core group of senior players who will drive this team forward over the next two or three years”, according to the national selector James Whitaker – although there has been no confirmation yet of whether he will resume his previous role as vice-captain to Alastair Cook.

That means a return to the county ranks for Buttler – and his first Roses experience in Friday’s Twenty20 Blast match against Yorkshire at Old Trafford – where Andrew Flintoff will not make his comeback, as had been widely expected, having failed to do enough in a second-team appearance in Arundel on Thursday to force his way into the Lancashire squad.

Buttler said the call from Whitaker “didn’t come as too much of a surprise. Playing Test cricket for England is very much a long-term goal, as has been much spoken about since I moved to Lancashire. I’m still only 23 and I wasn’t expecting it to happen so quickly. I’m really pleased with how I’ve developed and it makes you feel good just to be talked about. Look at Matt Prior and how much he’s come on through his career and turned into the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the world.”

This time last week Prior had not played a senior match since April – and even then he did not keep wicket. But some intensive work with England’s wicketkeeping coach Bruce French, followed by a T20 appearance last Friday and then 172 overs with the gloves in Sussex’s County Championship match against Nottinghamshire at Hove, has convinced the selectors that the 32-year-old is ready to resume his career after making way for Jonny Bairstow for the last two Tests of the Ashes series because of his uncharacteristically poor form in the first three.

“Our number one priority in the selection criteria is somebody being 100% fit, and we’re very confident that Matt is,” Whitaker said. “He’s come back really gunning to get his place back. Very few people go through their international career without a little bit of a blip and Matt’s no different. But he will have learned from that, refocused, re-energised, he’s just the sort of character we want in that team.”

Speaking of Stokes, and apparently discounting suggestions that the 23-year-old is being disciplined for suffering a hand injury when hitting a locker in frustration during the one-day games in the West Indies in February, Whitaker said: “He is very much part of England’s future. Just at the moment we feel with only 36 overs under his belt we would like to get a bit more stamina into his body.”

Whitaker confirmed that Robson, a 24-year-old who was born in Sydney and has played for Australia Under-19s but qualifies through an English mother, is seen as a long-term opening partner for Cook. He replaces Michael Carberry at the top of the order, with Joe Root, Ian Bell and Gary Ballance to be given the chance to establish themselves at Nos 3, 4 and 5 respectively, and Moeen selected to bat at six as an off-spinning all-rounder.

“Graeme Swann was a phenomenal player for us but we just have to adjust our balance of the team,” said Whitaker on the lack of a specialist spinner. “I think we’ve got good options to do that, I’m enthused about how we’re going to be able to balance it with Moeen and Joe. There are some specialist spinners around England but at the moment in early June for a Test match against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, we think we’ve got the balance right.”

“It’s a little bit of both I guess,” said the 23-year-old, who learned of his Test omission directly from Whitaker before taking part in a coaching session in Kirkham as part of Chance to Shine’s Cricket in Schools week sponsored by Yorkshire Tea.

“If it was just me to blame, there would be a few more Mankads than there is. From my point of view I was a little bit disappointed – I guess it’s something you don’t see very often and I wish it had never happened. But it’s done now, I’m not really too bothered by it, and I want to move on.”